Camp

Blog #5

By: Kim Pham

Internet Addiction Camp

Imagine being taken away from home in a car out to a remote area, to a compound that looks like a horror movie could have taken place there, and dropped off. Well that is what parents in China are resorting to in order to save their children from the disorder of Internet addiction. The brochure for the camp states that 80% of China’s youth suffer from Internet addiction. There are also numerous headlines in the news in China of children hurting or killing their parents due to being restricted from the Internet. A majority of these kids are addicted to the online game World of War Craft better referred to as WOW.

One such kid is Deng Shenshan.  His parents Deng Fei and Zhou Juan had to make this hard decision to put him through this kind of boot camp. Deng’s mother was so skeptical of the remote camp that she even asked if the kids were beaten and why were they forced to be outside in the hot blazing sun for the majority of the day. She was even going to take Deng home if he had turned around before entering the camp and say to her, “get me out of here.” Deng’s parents had to make this choice because they saw the signs and symptoms of Internet addiction disorder when their son’s grades started to drop-off exponentially and he stopped exercising all together. Clearly Deng was headed down the wrong path with his addiction to WOW.

The camp cost parents $1,000USD per month and has been proven to be effective. These facilities were first developed by Tao Ran, a military researcher and colonel in the People’s Liberation Army. He has claimed to treatment of over 5,000 campers and admits most of them are teenagers. The militant style of therapy has become so popular that South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam have all copy-cat the concept. The treatments consist of fusion therapy, physical training, and medication.

If you had a child who is addicted to the Internet and it became escalated to the level of endangerment, would you take such an action as Deng’s parents?

Article link: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/01/ff_internetaddiction/

Contributing sources:

 http://www.wired.com/magazine

Homesless Addict

Blog #4

By: Kim Pham

A Homeless Addict

Imagine being homeless because of an addiction to the Internet. Well “Ace”, whose real name is Andrew, happens to be a real life example of this tragedy. Ace lives in the state of Oregon where he spends his nights in a tent, in a wooded area between two railroad tracks. His days are spent at the local library playing online video games and surfing other web content. Ace is not an unintelligent man, rather he is more or less just lacks the motivation to escape from his captors, the internet. He has a GED and has attempted to complete college a couple of times with failure as the result. He blames his compulsive behavior and anxiety. Ace has not experienced homelessness without some tragedy. The neighbors nearby have burned down his tent and the kids in the area have beaten him up pretty badly a few times. Andrew is 36 years old.

So where is Andrew’s family in all of this you ask? The reason Andrew’s story was known is attributed to his brother, Winston Ross, a contributor at Newsweek. Winston wanted to do a write-up on ReSTART, an Internet addiction therapy program being conducted at an Internet addiction center in Fall City, Washington. Winston still chuckles about how he first entered the center and asked the man working there if they have Wi-Fi. He compared it to an alcoholic attending an AA meeting and asking for a drink.

Winston decided to follow his brother for a few days to ask him why he can’t shake the Internet and do something productive with his life. Winston believes that Ace is beyond the point of no return. After 20 years of game consoles and computers, it seemed as though even the therapy ReSTART won’t be able to reverse the damage caused by the Internet. The worst part of this story is that Andrew was able to get a laptop through the contributions from his family members. Now Ace can spend all day and night on the internet through the use of local hot-spots. His favorite response to “why” is; “at least I am not slaving for an evil corporation 70 hours a week.”

The whole story can be read at the link below. Whether you decide to read the story or not, ask yourself if this could ever happen to you? What would it take for you to escape your captors, the Internet?

Link to story: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/10/07/a-world-wide-woe.html

Contributing sources:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek

IAD Test

Blog #3

By: Kim Pham

Internet Addiction Test

A test is one of the most convenient tools that can help give you a quick answer to a question(s). In searching for a way to get a rapid diagnosis to the problem, “am I addicted to the internet”, I found this test. The test composes of 20 questions related to internet addiction disorder. The test should only take 2-4 minutes maximum time. Each of the questions is weighted differently. Once you have completed the questionnaire, your end score is tallied and you can compare it to the list of score ranges to see how your score correlates to a description of the results. I took the test myself because I wanted to make sure it worked. I am proud to say that I scored a 31, which fell in the 20-49 range. I won’t give you the full description (not going to spoil it), but I can tell you that I am not in need of any therapy for internet addiction disorder. There are a total of 3 score ranges and a full description for each range. Please follow the link to take the test. Once you are done, comment on your score and let us know if it describes your level of internet addiction.

http://www.netaddiction.com/index.php?option=com_bfquiz&view=onepage&catid=46&Itemid=106

Contributing sources:

 http://www.netaddiction.com

Do You Suffer from It?

Internet Addiction is an impulsive-control problem and four subtypes have been defined:

Cybersexual  Addiction- Individuals who suffer from Cybersex/Internet pornography addiction are typically engaged in viewing, downloading, and trading online pornography or involved in adult fantasy role-play chat rooms

Cyber-Affair/Relational Addiction- Individuals who suffer from an addiction to chat rooms, IM, or social networking sites become over-involved in online relationships or may engage in virtual adultery. Online friends quickly become more important to the individual often at the expense of real life relationships with family and friends. In many instances, this will lead to marital discord and family instability.

Net Compulsions – Addictions to online gaming, online gambling, and eBay are fast becoming new mental problems in the post-Internet Era. With the instant access to virtual casinos, interactive games, and eBay, addicts loose excessive amounts of money and even disrupt other job-related duties or significant relationships.

Information Overload-The wealth of data available on the World Wide Web has created a new type of compulsive behavior regarding excessive web surfing and database searches. Individuals will spend greater amounts of time searching and collecting data from the web and organizing information. Obsessive compulsive tendencies and reduced work productivity are typically associated with this behavior.

Dr. Kimberly Young developed eight criteria to identify Internet Addiction:

1)      Do you feel preoccupied with the Internet?

2)      Do you feel the need to use the Internet more to satisfy yourself?

3)      Have you made unsuccessful attempts to control your Internet usage?

4)      Does it change your mood when you try to cut back on the usage?

5)      Do you stay online longer than intended?

6)      Have you ever risked your job or a significant relationship because of the Internet?

7)      Have you ever lied to anyone to cover up how much you us the Internet?

8)      Do you use the Internet as a way of escaping problems or reality even?

Answering "yes" to five or more questions may mean you suffer from Internet addiction.  Internet addiction is a global problem.

This was all provided by the studies at the Center for Internet Addiction and Recovery.

Is it Possible to Cure Internet Addiction?

I recently found an article on the Huffpost Healthly Living website titled 11 Ways to Cure Internet Addiction; here is a little about what it said.

Detecting the Problem:

It can be hard to tell when a hobby has become more than just a hobby. It is also hard to be honest with yourself and face the list of symptoms that you actually fit into. This article has identified some things to watch out for.

1)      If you spend more time with your computer than other people. This can mean your family or your friends. Maybe your friends are always telling you to get a life and stop sitting in front of the computer……there is some truth to this.

2)      If you can’t abide by the boundaries you set for yourself. For example, if you come home telling yourself that you will just get online to check email very quickly, and play with your children after that, but then ending getting off the computer after they’ve gone to bed……that’s bad.

3)       Lying to others about your computer usage.  When you find yourself having to lie to others about how much you use the computer or Internet, Houston, there’s a problem.

4)      Feeling unable to live without the computer or Internet.  If you can’t even go one day without feeling anxiety when separated from your computer, you may need help.

5)      Misguided spending on the computer.  Say for instance, your hard drive crashes and you’ve got just enough money to buy another or to pay rent. If you choose to buy another hard drive rather than pay your rent that is considered improper prioritizes. Even you work from a computer; you should go somewhere (e.g. a library or internet café) to do your work. At least then, you’ll still have a place to live.

Solving the Problem

Below are some ways to help with the addiction, but they must be implemented before the problem gets out of hand and before you spend any money on therapy.

1)      The web-workers should check into getting a virtual assistant. The website says that these are fairly cheap, but I looked into it: $2000 per month is not cheap. Anyway these assistants can do most of your busy computer work for you, so you rack up less time online.

2)      Set your computer usage boundaries early on. This means to decide what your purposes are for using the Internet and how you need to get these things finished. Beyond that, you don’t need to be online.

3)      Get family and friends onboard with you. If you’ve reached this point, then they already know you have a problem. There’s no shame in asking for help from them. These are the people that can hold you accountable.

4)      Give the passwords.  I personally think this step is bogus because I would never give someone my passcodes, but all the same this article says it will help to let them shut all your stuff off.

5)      Modify your routine. If your routine is to check email first thing in the morning or as soon as you get home from work, try eating breakfast first or doing some household chores. You know if you get online right away, none of these things will be done.

6)      Don’t use the computer for recreational purposes if you know you have a problem. If you have an existing problem with the Internet it’s not a good idea to do fun things online like play games, because you shouldn’t associate the computer with fun anymore; not if there is a recognized problem.

These are all ways to recognize an Internet addiction and ways to overcome it. Track your progress by keeping track of time spent online.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/11/11-ways-to-cure-internet_n_106591.html

Therapy

Internet Addiction: Therapy

By: Kim T. Pham

Since our group did not address the possible therapies for internet addiction disorder in our presentation, I want to make sure our presentation is complete by addressing it. The current therapies available now are the sessions created by Dr. Kimberly S. Young. She believes that the approach of going “cold turkey” and not using the internet at all would be a disaster in attempting to help someone who is suffering from internet addiction. There are 8 therapy types: Practice the Opposite, Use External Stoppers, Abstain from a Particular Application, Use Reminder Cards, Develop a Personal Inventory, Enter a Support Group, and Family Therapy. I wanted to highlight a few of the therapies in this blog.

“Practicing the Opposite” is exactly what the name implies. Having an addicted person break a routine is probably one of the first steps to helping someone with any type of addiction. The therapy suggests that if you normally log-on to the internet the first thing in the morning, try to do other things before hand, such as eat breakfast. The goal is to have the addicted person re-adapt to another schedule that involves less time on the internet.

“External Stoppers”, this particular one was addressed in our presentation during the remedies section. Having to go somewhere will prompt a person to log-off because of a prior engagement. Try to schedule a full day of quality appointments, such as lunch with a friend, walking the dog, going to the gym, or even studying without a computer’s aid.

“Personal Inventory” tries to have the addicted person pit the internet against other activities of value. Such as going to a baseball game, going to the park and throwing the football, or spending time with a love one. This particular therapy asks the person to value the activities on a number scale relative to importance of the activities, hoping to trigger a valuation inside of the person away from the internet. Once the addicted person sees the “light”, maybe they will voluntarily make better choices with their valuable time instead of being stuck on the internet.

I only highlighted a few of the therapies available, but if you have to go “cold turkey” for a week (5 days), could you go without the use of the internet?  What would be an event or situation that could trigger you to make such a change?

Contributing Sources:

http://www.netaddiction.com/articles/symptoms.pdf

To Agree or Not to Agree

blog entry by: Christin Broome

Until recently, addiction focused on highs received from the use of drugs or other substances that caused a particular reaction in the brain's chemical responses. Now it's been brought to public attention that the Internet can give someone a similar "high". Since this disorder seems to affect everyone close to the "user" there are now a few psychologists that know how to threat it.

In today's environment the use of a computer is a must, and the availability of the Internet is everywhere. Like any other hobby, this can be taken too far in the aspect of time spent. The people who cross the line are said to be suffering from Internet Addiction Disorder (Dr. Grohol, 2003, par.1)

According to Dr. John Grohol the original research cases were surveys which did not fully explain the connection between the behavior and its cause. It is agreed upon that there is a relationship and a difference between spending too much time on the computer and engaging in Internet use so much that people don't deal with the problems in their own lives.

Dr. Grohol has made a model to suggest an alternate theory about why people use the Internet so much; it proposes that the person goes through three phases in the process of recognizing the capabilities and resources of the Internet. Phase One- the person is new to his/her surroundings or is an existing user that finds a new online activity, also known as the Enchantment Phase, (Dr. Grohol, 2003, par.20). This the addictive phase. Phase Two- is "disillusionment" where the person becomes uninterested in the Internet activity that started him/her off. Dr. Grohol says this is an accomplishment that takes the person into the Phase Three- Balance.  The balance phase shows normal usage of the Internet, and the phases can be recycled if the person finds another interesting Internet activity. (Dr. Grohol, 2003, par.20)  

While online, most people visit chatrooms or discussion groups, use e-mail, or gamble; these activities are said to be a form of socialization. However, David Greenfield, PhD, founder of the Center for Internet Studies, disagreed by quoting "It's a socially connecting device that's socially isolating at the same time", (DeAngelis, 2000, par.7)

What do you think? Is Internet Addiction that same as chemical addiction? Do you agree with the last quote in this blog?



 http://allpsych.com/journal/internetaddiction.html